Photo walks, news, and a visit from Scott Kelby

So, as many of you know, Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), Kelby Media Group, Kelby Training Live, and leader of the pack of Photoshop guys over at Photoshop User TV, was in Denver yesterday on his Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tour.  He led a seminar yesterday that, despite several technical difficulties, was pretty rockin’ when it comes to establishing a work flow in Lightroom.

Scott is also known for his annual worldwide photo walks that he started last year.  This year response has just been enormous to the walks, with several cities (including Denver) filling up within the first 24 hours.  Well, on his blog this last Monday, he wrote a Q&A post describing the photo walks, what they are, how they work, and all that stuff.  One question he snuck in though was that he would be in Denver and did anyone know of any good places to shoot in the downtown area.

Since I work downtown, (pretty close to the Convention Center I might add), I have a fairly good understanding of where things are, and what’s fun to shoot.  So, I posted a comment on his blog of where he could go and what might be fun.  To my astonishment, he actually wrote me back via email, asing if I’d be interested in going on a photo shoot with him to kinda show him around!  Not give him a few locations, not recommend a restaurant – he invited me on a photo shoot!  With him!  My jaw about hit the floor, but I did respond that it’d be my pleasure to show him around the area.  He sent me some info on where he’d be staying and to come on over after work on Tuesday!  My jaw hit the floor again.  But, regaining my composure, on Tuesday after work, I walked over to his hotel to meet him.  Knocked on the door and sure enough – Mr K. himself!  The maker of the Kelby Kool-Ade!

For the next 2 hours, we walked around the downtown area –  talking shop, and all that stuff.  I was silent for about the first 30 minutes, afraid I would say something utterly stupid to embarrass myself, but as I walked and we talked, found that he’s just a regular guy (despite his amazing base of knowledge, and…well, the fact that he’s Scott Kelby!)  After a few hours of shooting, I then enjoyed an amazing dinner with him and his crew – names like Bert, Ben, Moose, Matt, Corey, etc., etc., were bandied about in the regular conversation.  Needless to say, I kept quiet for most of it, trying to keep my jaw off the floor.  I know, I know – they are all people too, but every time someone’s name was mentioned, I just kept thinking to myself, “Yup, I read their blog too!”  Oh, and then for the next day’s seminar – he reserved a front row seat for me!  It was an incredible day, and I just wanted to take a day here on the blog to give a nod to Scott for being so open and friendly, and just – so, well….cool!

My shots from the day were pretty much lousy as I totally wasn’t paying attention to my technique or anything – just trying not to look like an idiot.  Nevertheless, in honor of his visit to Denver, and in hopes of his return:

Photoshop CS3 vs Elements 7.0 – Part One

Ever since Tom Hogarty came on the podcast and I’ve had some time to dive into Lightroom, I am thinking more and more that this is a much better solution for managing all of my photo assets.  Since I’ve found myself spending more time in LR and less time in PS CS3 (Extended), I started debating if I really needed so much horsepower under the hood.  After all, CS3 Extended is quite the workhorse, from performance, to functionality, to footprint, and of course, price. It left me wondering about my upgrade path.

In all honesty though, I think the term “upgrade” may be a misnomer – after all, am I really using all the features of the full version of Photoshop Cs3?  If not, what’s the point in upgrading?  Perhaps I should be looking at a downgrade.  After all, I really do spend less time post processing these days.  So, what are the differences between CS3 and this thing called Elements?  Well, for the loyal readers of this blog, I decided to find out.

First up, I downloaded a trial version of Elements 7.0 from Adobe’s website.  The download is about half the size  of the Photoshop Cs4 download (400+ MB for Windows Elements, and over 800 MB for Photoshop Creative Suite on Windows).  To the geek in me, that means a smaller footprint on my hard drive, and less consumption of system resources.   Something to consider…

Anyway, I decided to really do a side by side comparison, and loaded CS3 and Elements in their default work spaces, then compared notes.  Here’s what I found (CS3 is first, Elements is second):

Photoshop CS3 Default Workspace
Photoshop CS3 Default Workspace
Default Elements Workspace
Default Elements Workspace

Wow!  Quite a difference.  I first noticed the much darker color of the work space for Elements.  Not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but something that I would necessarily have to adjust to.  So, what else is there?  Well, rather than go over each painstaking difference of the two applications, I decided to just give a quick overview here.  And, with the quick overview, I figured the best place to start would be the toolbars, since that’s what we really need to use in either of these anyway, right?  So, let’s look at them side-by-side:

Photoshop CS3 Extended Toolbar
Photoshop CS3 Extended Toolbar
Photoshop Elements Toolbar
Photoshop Elements Toolbar

They actually don’t look too diferent when you look at them side by side, do they?  I didn’t think so, and I set out to count the various tool bars.  Know what?  On a quick overview of the 22 tools in CS3, I counted 17 commonalities between CS3 and Elements 7!  That’s a lot of overlap!  Are there more buried tools in CS3?  Most likely.  On quick count, I found 60 tools throughout the CS3 Toolbar.  In elements, 48!  Even still, not a lot extra.  From a percentage perspective, that is 20% additional functionality in CS3 Extended versus Elements 7.0  My guess is CS3 Regular would have less of a difference still.

The question is though – how often do you go searching for some buried tool in CS3?  As a photographer, in all honesty, not that often.  If you think about it, as photographers, we crop, re-size, perhaps straighten an occasional horizon, add some sharpening, and if we want to get really serious with a photo, we’ll do some dodging and burning.  All of these functions are present in Elements 7.0

So, why would you want to go with the CS3 or CS4 version of Photoshop – truly if you want to take your photos to the Nth degree, or do serious work like graphic design, web design, or photo restoration, I can totally see the need for some of the more advanced tools in the Creative Suite.  But more and more, I find myself using CS3 less and less.  Take a look at the commonalities listed below – these are identical features in both applications!  It took me a little by surprise when I noticed the similarities even in tool names.  See if you can find the common tools from the listing below:

Common Tools between CS3 and Elements
Common Tools between CS3 and Elements

So, what other important factors go into an image editing program for me?  Well, having been working in the Creative Suite for a long time – I do enjoy the benefits of layered files for different purposes.  Well, guess what – Elements does that too!  That means you can edit and save files as PSD’s!

I also like using actions to automate my work flow.  Uh Oh…from my initial glance, it does not appear that Elements 7.0 has this functionality built in.  But, can it be added?  Well, a Google search on the topic of “Elements Actions” says yes, so I think I could probably figure it out enough to eek the process to my needs.

The other major functionality I have an interest in is the ability to edit and manage raw files from my camera.  Can I see the raw files?  Sure enough, the ACR converter has made its way into Elements as well!

Adobe Camera Raw Converter in Elements
Adobe Camera Raw Converter in Elements

In fact, a lot of the preferences settings seem to have migrated over from Photoshop CS3…look at the same screen from there:

Photoshop CS3 Preferences Settings
Photoshop CS3 Preferences Settings

As similarities continue to mount, the last major thing to consider is price.  Retail, CS4 runs at $700 for the full price, an upgrade runs $200.  Elements?  Well, I think y’all know where this is headed:  Retail $139 and upgrade for $119.  I don’t know about you, but that is a HUGE cost savings.  It almost seems too good to be true, and given my penchant for not taking things at face value – I will take a look at the image processing capabilities in greater detail next week.  We’ll take a look at noise handling, speed, performance, and see how it does with a variety of images from my Canon 40D.

The biggest downside that I can see is that you don’t have the color management capabilities in Elements that you have in the Creative Suite – I like making some LAB adjustments from time to time, and filters may suffer in availability too – but more on that next week.

For the time being though, given the similarity in apparent functionality, the reduced price for Elements, and the proportionate footprint on my computer – Elements is definitely a contender.  For all I know – as I learn more about Lightroom after the workshop from Scott Kelby and NAPP on Wednesday, the idea of a separate application for image editing may go by the wayside too, especially when the cost for the CS product is 400% that of Elements.

So, what do you think?  Anyone out there using Elements?  Any other downgraders care to share their thoughts?  Have you enjoyed downsizing?  Found things you missed?  Workarounds?  Add-ons?  Tell me more as I continue to explore Elements next week – I’ll add reader observations there too!  In the meantime, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow after the NAPP workshop!

Hardware Review: The 70-200L f4.0

In keeping with the last few weeks of hardware reviews, I am taking a look in my own bag one more time to bring you this weeks’ hardware review: the 70-200mm L lens from Canon.  Canon has several variants on this lens, with different minimal apertures both with and without Image Stabilization (IS).  So, in the interests of full disclosure, this is a non-IS lens, and the aperture range is the standard one, 4.0 to 5.6.  So, with that distinction being made, we’re off and running:

Canons 70-200mm f4.0 lens
Canon's 70-200mm f4.0 lens

The “L” distinction is one that bears discussion right off – Canon only gives this out to lenses that it deems have superior optics – which means a wider range for it’s sweet spot, tack sharp focus, and better sealing against the elements.  This naturally means that this lens will, by definition and categorization, be sharper than a comparable “non-L” lens.  However, for this particular range of zoom, Canon doesn’t make a non-L lens, so one would have to make a comparison with a 3rd party brand such as Sigma or Tamron.  Even there though, comparisons are tricky primarily because vendors are moving toward faster glass (in the 2.8 category) and IS features.

In that regard, the 70-200 f4.0 really is in a class by itself.  As a result of its unique status in the field of available lenses, comparisons are rather arbitrary as no other lens out there has the same specs.  Rather than making those comparisons though, I’ll just say that this lens does deliver superior performance for its’ category.

So, how is this a review?  Well, it’s not just a question of performance, it’s also a question of price.  Anything can be stellar, but whether it’s worth the price is another story.  I know of luxury cars that exceed 6 figures for their cost, however, most cannot justify the expense, either because of their financial situation or the expected need.  So, how does the 70-200 fit when it comes to cost?  Pretty well actually.

The cost for this lens at B&H Photo is $600 right now (technically $599.95) after a $50 rebate.  Considering the next step up is twice the price for either an f2.8 or an IS lens, this is actually a steal!  I was able to find mine second hand from a fellow photographer when I lived in SC, so got it for considerably less.  Included in my package was a lens hood, and a collar for mounting to a tripod (which I definitely would recommend given the weight).  The previous owner was also nice enough to leave the Tiffen filter on it that provided protection for the lens.  All told, the lens and accessories would run around $700 for the lens, lens hood, UV filter, and tripod collar.

When looking at comparable other lenses from Canon, this is where you really see the bang for the buck.  Take a look at the most recent prices from B&H for similar lenses:

  • 70-200L f2.8  = $1250
  • 70-200L f2.8 IS = $1600
  • 70-200L f4.0 IS = $1025

So, you can save at least $425 if IS isn’t important to you, or $650 for the next fastest version of this lens

At a smidge over 1.5 lbs, the weight does balance the mid-grade SLR’s quite nicely, although on the Rebel line I recall it being a tad heavy.  As a general rule of thumb, with larger and heavier lenses, you’ll want to carry this by the lens itself rather than the camera as you don’t want to put undue tension on the mount.

Overall though, for the price and range, I would highly recommend this lens.  It’s tack sharp at both 70 and at 200 with a sweet spot ranging from f5.6 to f16.  Kind of hard to say no to that kind of quality when it’s offered at such an affordable price.  Here’s some sample shots to show what I’m talking about:

Here’s a sample from 70mm at f9.0

The Rocky Mountainsfrom a distance
The Rocky Mountainsfrom a distance

And the same scene from 200mm at the same aperture:

The Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains

Then, just to give you an idea of the sharpness, here’s some shots at f4.0 (a little noiser because I was at ISO 3200)…first the 70mm shot:

What time is it?
What time is it?

And now at 200mm:

What time is it?
What time is it?

And the 200mm shot:

Okay, so that’s about it for the day.  Hope you found it useful and informative (as always).  Don’t forget the Lightroom Contest going on over at the Flickr Thread – only about 12 more days left and still not a lot of entries.  Great chance to win a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (retails for $300)!  If you have ideas, suggestions, comments, feedback or other insights on future gear you’d like reviewed, feel free to share those in the comments below or with me via email.

One last little nugget to share today…Scott Kelby announced his 2nd Annual Photowalk early this morning, so be sure to register in your city.  I’m already registered in the Denver group and that’s rolling early (7:45ish am) in the Lodo area.  More details to come on route, eating place, etc. , but mark your calendars now for July 18th!  Here’s the link for more info if you’re not in Denver:  Worldwide Photowalk Have a great day, Happy Shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Say Cheese?

Ever wonder why we’ve heard photographers say that when taking your picture?  Think about what happens when you do – your facial features open up, your mouth opens slightly, and you get a little upward curvature in the corners of your lips.  (Unless of course you concentrate on specifically not doing that.)  Whoever thought this up eons ago was well ahead of the curve, because knowing how to take good portraiture encompasses entire volumes of books on the subject.

Volumes exist on what lenses to use, how to light, depth of fieldand much much more, but perhaps the most valuable information on how to take great portraits comes not just from technical awareness, but from personal interactions, and how to get people to act natural yet emotive and to let that come through in your work.  While no blog post could entirely exhaust the subject, here are ten quick tips on taking better portraits:

  1. Establish a connection – portraiture is about connecting with someone through the image.  If you don’t connect with them through the camera, then there will be no connection in the print.  Make sure you connect with your subjects in some way.  Get to know about them, because that knowledge can transform your vision into really beautiful works of art.
  2. Relax the subject – Connecting with your subject means they feel comfortable around you – now the key is to get them to feel comfortable in front of the camera.  Many times this is much easier said than done, but when you do get them to relax, the poses will come more fluidly, and you’ll get better results.  One way I do this is to just start taking pictures of things around us as we talk and connect.  The whole idea of hearing the shutter can be scary to some people, so by hearing it almost to excess and know it’s not on them can mitigate the “scary” factor.
  3. Choose a background – if you are in a studio environment, this is fairly easy, but if you are on location, keep your eyes out for backgrounds that provide contrast to the subject.  Are they wearing light clothes?  Look for a dark background.  What about props to give a little more meaning.  Are they sports fans?  Have them hold a football, or stand by a basketball hoop.  Backgrounds can help give more definition to your subject.
  4. Have a purpose – try to think of reasons why you are taking the picture.  Is it to record an event, or is it for a model?  What about a head shot for a business executive?  If you think of why you are taking the picture in the first place, that can help give you ideas for how to compose it.  For the event, it’s about the moment, while the portrait it’s about just the person, so give some thought to how to enhance their best qualities and minimize flaws.
  5. Create separation – this is crucial to giving definition to your subject while minimizing distractions.  In the on-location areas, look out for things like power lines, nearby light sources and other objects that may detract from the subject.  Here it also helps to keep a wider aperture so that any distractions can be effectively blurred out of focus to minimize their impact.
  6. All about the angles – Some people have great profiles.  Striking features can be accented from certain angles and can give greater impact and meaning.  Shooting from below can suggest power and strength (for the business executive), while shooting from above can minimize a body style that is more robust.  Even profile shots can be stunning if done right (hint:  try shadows there).
  7. Lights, lights, lights – photography is all about painting with light, so portraiture is no exception.  Whether it be modifying existing light with reflectors, diffusers and shoot throughs, or creating your own light with strobes and flashes positioned off to the side or from above, lighting can create a wide variety of moods and bring images to life, especially in portraiture!
  8. Watch the eyes – for any subject, whether human or animals, we like to have the eyes in focus.  It’s just the nature of people to look at the eyes in a subject, so make sure the eyes of yours are tack sharp.  Seeing a persons eyes have often been said to be a mirror to their soul.  You can get playful eyes, soulful eyes, sad eyes, sparkling eyes, weepy eyes, tear-stained eyes, angry eyes, hungry eyes, passionate eyes… (you get the eye-dea!)
  9. Clean that skin tone – this means make sure that you are keeping the tones in check.  If the skin is too orange or too blue, add or remove some flash or ambient light.  Here the key is in white balancing your images.  Take along a grey card (even something as small as a 3×5 card can work) and you can set your white balance off that – your skin tones will be spot on if you do – and save you tons of post processing time.
  10. Less is not always more – let’s all just admit it, it’s a digital world.  Those pictures are really just data packets and with data being as cheap as it is, we can afford to take more shots.  This can help with blinkers, and if you want to try several poses or wardrobe changes, or lighting changes, or location changes, or group changes (think weddings). or weather changes (think sunlight versus rain, versus cloudy), or….I think the gist is clear again here.

So, there’s ten nuggets.  I tried to be brief yet have some detail, but you can never have enough time or space to really cover something with so much to talk about in a short blog post.  With that in mind, what about your thoughts on portraiture?  Add to the pool!  Got any ideas, DIY tricks or nuggets that work for you?  Share them in the comments or via email.

Before signing out for the day, I’d like to give some special thanks to a few people.  First to Derrick Story for the helpful link from his blog post today about the tethered shooting write-up.  It’s always nice to get what I like to call “a nod from the Gods”, but not only did he write a post about my write-up, he also submitted it to the Imaging Insider, who subsequently included the write up on their site.    Second up, I’d also like to throw some NAPP-Love back to Karen from “Pursuing Photoshop” (a.k.a. Mitzs in the blogosphere, also a member of NAPP) for her link back to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom contest currently running here on the blog – thanks Mitzs!

Oh yeah, and finally, don’t forget the Photoshop Lightroom contest I announced in last week’s podcast – it’s running over in a thread on Flickr, and the images are starting to come in.  Some really nice ones so far, but there’s plenty of time left in May to enter!  Good luck to everyone!  Well, enough content for one day, so happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Win a copy of Adobe Lightroom 2.0!

box_lightroom2_150x150

Just last week, I had the distinct honor of interviewing Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager for Adobe Lightroom.  Needless to say, I postponed the podcast for a few more days so I could include the interview.  He really gave a good breakdown of the function of Lightroom, what to expect from it, how to incorporate it into your work flow, and what (in general) we can likely expect to see in the future of image processing development.    We spent a good deal of time going over the nuts and bolts, so under the general heading of Software discussions today, I’d like to introduce you to Adobe’s Lightroom.

Lightroom is a very different way of handling your images.  Rather than taking a single image at a time through something like Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom allows you to not only address single image edits, but also manage an entire library of images.  The key here is management, because that’s what Lightroom really does – it takes the idea of asset management and incorporates it into a program so that you don’t even have to think about it!  Rather than belabour the point here though, it would probably be best to encourage everyone to just download the podcast and give it a listen.  Not only do we discuss Lightroom, but we also take a lot of listener questions, both specific to Lightroom and general photography questions too – and, oh yeah, a contest!

That’s right – Adobe was kind enough to donate a copy of Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 to some lucky listener.  At an estimated retail value of almost $300 ($299), this is by and large, the best contest I’ve could ever come up with!   It’s very exciting!  I’d love to share the details here, but if I did that, you wouldn’t listen to the podcast.  So… want to know the details?  Listen to the podcast! In the meantime, here’s the show notes on the things we discussed and where to get the latest and greatest info on the product:

Be sure to stop over at Twitter and start following these folks, because they are the ones who you can really learn a lot from!  Then don’t forget to listen to the podcast for your chance to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0!  Happy Shooting and good luck one and all!

Oh yeah, here’s the teaser link for the contest:  Learning Digital Photography Flickr Group

Where oh Where can You Go? (GPS Units)

Many of us as photographers are also gadget hounds, and the ability to accessorize our cameras with the latest and greatest gadgets and doohickeys is both a boon and a curse.  It’s a boon because we have so many options available to us, and it is a curse for the same reason – because we have so many options available to us.  A perfect example of this is the development of GPS attachments.

GPS (Global positioning system) units allow us to add the longitudinal and latitudinal information to the meta data of our digital images.  This can help us locate the picture on a map, find the location later, and adds another type of data that we can filter for when managing our images.  As the technology has advanced, the price has come down to the point where the ability to incorporate such an accessory is much more feasible.

Here are some of the more popular GPS units on the market these days.  While I have not tested these, coming from the article Jack neubart wrote in the May issue of Shutterbug, I would suspect that these are some of the more well-known devices available:

  • Amod AGL3080
  • DeLorme Earthmae GPS PN-40
  • Eye-Fi Explore
  • ATP GPS Photofinder
  • GiSTEQ Phototracker CD111
  • Jobo Photo GPS
  • QStars BT-Q1000X
  • Sony GPS CS1KA
  • Super Trackstick
  • Wolverine GEO-35

I was able to get some pretty detailed reviews on each of these devices, along with their respective software components by performing a simple Google search of the device name, and rather than regurgitate all that information here, suggest that those who are interested in learning more detailed information do the same.

Special thanks for the collection of all this data to Jack Neubart over at Shutterbug magazine for his very informative article and summary on all of these devices.  If you’d be interested in the summary, be sure to pick up a copy or subscribe to the magazine today – it’s one of the better resources on the internet!  Happy Shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the Software Review – very exciting one too, so be sure to add CB to your feeds!

Comparison photos from 10-22mm

Earlier this week on the blog, the 10-22mm Canon was reviewed, and in the comments, Julie asked if I could provide some comparison shots.  So, in the interests of demonstrating the perspective change (and provide a few sample shots of things I thought came out well), here’s a plethora of photos.  First, the comparisons… all shots were done at 1/50th, f5.0 and ISO 800 from a range of 5 feet, 10 feet, and 15 feet, and pointed straight on at the door.  No post processing was done in order to preserve as “raw” a comparison as possible…

At 5 feet on the kit 18-55mm

_mg_9396

Now5 feet  with the 10-22mm:

_mg_9397

Notice how much more of a range of view the 10-22 has even at 10 feet?  So much more can be seen now both high and low (notice the tape measure I have in there for scale?)!  Moving right along…

Here’s 10 feet on the kit 18-55

_mg_9401

And the 10-22 at 10 feet:

_mg_9398

Again, even more range of view both top to bottom and left to right (see the book case?)  But as we go wider the differences get even more pronounced!

Finally, the kit 18-55 at 15 feet:

_mg_9400

And the 10-22mm at 15 feet:

_mg_9399

So, you can see why wide angle lenses work well in real estate, eh?  Wide angles are particularly useful in capturing architecture, and their prominence in this specific field is very well known!

Other genres of photography can benefit from its use though.  Remember the HDR shots I put up last week?  These were both taken with the wide angle:

final_hdr_blog1

2a_blog

So, landscapes can also benefit from using a wide angle lens.  But what about portrait work?  Here is where the “group” mentality can come into play.  Here’s a shot from a family reunion I took after acquiring this lens (that’s me on the far side, camera right):

gang_web

You want to be careful about using it for close-up portrait work though, because distortion can work against you, producing unflattering looks (I am intentionally using a super small file size here because it’s really not flattering at all if used wrong):

bad_wide

But of course, this is how the now famous “dog” pictures were developed, so you can try it yourself for unique looks:

moo_wide

So, that’s the ups and downs, the los and highs, the pros and cons of the 10-22.  In closing, here’s a parting shot I took from the island in SC where we were having family photo ops and fun!

wide1

Try getting that without a wide angle!  🙂  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Hardware Review: Canon 10-22mm

Happy Monday to all!  Today is an exciting day here at the blog, because a new schedule of sorts is going to start, both to make reading more enjoyable, and to make writing more planned and easily executed.

The reason behind the new flow is due to many listener questions asking a wide variety of questions, ranging from hardware questions to software questions, technical questions, work flow questions and the like.  So, in the interests of providing answers to each of the wide subject matter areas, here’s the new schedule:

  • Monday: Hardware – I’ll take a look at hardware components, ranging from lenses to bodies, attachments and accessories.  This could come in the way of a review, a summary, or other commentary.
  • Tuesday: Software – many elements of photography involve using software, whether it be organizing your library of images, to managing that library, and editing idividual photos.  Here is where I’ll take a look at software reviews, editing tips and tricks, considering work flows,and other similar subjects.
  • Wednesday: Composition – As with anything else, you only get better when you practice what you preach.  We can only learn so much from reading – and today I’ll focus on the “doing”.  How to take better pictures, what elements of composition work, what elements of composition don’t work, what to look for, what to avoid… things of that nature.
  • Thursday: Free-for-all – Who knows what may happen – I’ve been doing the “Thursday Thoughts with…” series, and this may happen from time to time – I’ll keep everyone on their toes with this post! (This will probably also be the post that includes show notes for the weekly podcast hosted over at Personal Life Media, Learning Digital Photography.)
  • Friday: Weekly wrap-up – news and events of the week, notable items of interest to photographers, and the occasional note with blog announcements, and other administrative types of things.

So, in kicking things off, here is the first installment of a look at some of the hardware in my own gear bag (since many of you dear readers have asked about that stuff specifically).  This week, I take a look at the 10-22mm lens from Canon.

ef10-22_586x225

This lens has been the premiere wide angle lens for quite some time, as the widest non-fisheye available on the market.  Only recently have Sigma and now Nikon added this specific range to their inventory of available lenses.  I absolutely love this lens and have used it for everything from landscape work to architecture work, and even some portrait work when I am going for a unique look.  In general you won’t use a wide angle lens for portrait work because of the distortion that can occur when you get up close.  This distortion can work to your advantage if that is the look you are going for though.  Alternatively, if you have a larger group of people, a wider lens may be required to fit everyone in the scene.

Fitted with the well-regarded USM feature for Canon lenses, I also love this lens for it’s whisper quiet and fast focusing.  You almost can’t even hear it as it locks in on your point of focus.

On the downside (if this can be considered one) – because it is an EF-S lens, this will not work on the full frame cameras.  So, shooters using the Canon 1Ds series (Mark II or III).  While full-frame lenses may be the future of digital photography, there are enough people out there with the Rebel series, and the family of 20D-50D bodies that can really take advantage of this lens.  I have to give this lens two thumbs up!

ETA:  Update:  I had inadvertently made the notation that the 10-22mm is an “L” lens from Canon.  This is not the case – thanks go out to Bill for detecting this.  While it was a typo, the disctintion is an important one because Canon designates their high end glass with the letter “L”.

Are you prepared for Spring to… spring?

jasonanderson_spring2

Spring represents a time of earnest and excitement for many photographers – the dreary days of winter have faded, and the sun, colors, and excitement to get outside can inspire many of us to take off for the hills – gear in hand and ready to shoot!

The problem arises when Spring…springs!  This means sudden rainfall, and moisture is no friend to camera gear.  With probably at least a couple thousand dollars invested in gear for most of us – are you prepared for the showers that come with Spring ventures?  Here’s a couple things I keep in my camera bag during Springtime in particular:

  1. Dessicant – this chemical comes with pretty much everything these days – and you can even purchase bags of it for use to absorb moisture.  Put a few of these in your bag to help protect from drops of dew
  2. A towel – we all have microfiber clots, and these are great for glass, but what about a good old fashioned towel to brush off moisture if it comes in contact with your gear?  A small dish or hand towel can save your bacon, not to mention a $1000 body (or lens)!
  3. A poncho – makes protecting and caring for your gear a lot easier if you are dry too!
  4. Plastic bags – I get the 2-quart sized bags and put my lenses in that before stashing in my camera bag  Just another layer of protection in a multi-layered defense against moisture!
  5. Change of clothes – whenever I go out anywhere, I have a change of clothes in the car – in cold weather, it’s a pair of jeans and a t-shirt/flannel shirt, in summer a pair of shorts and t-shit, and spring jeans and a shirt

These may seem like common sense types of things, but how many do you really have laid out for when you go on an outing?  Take stock of your Spring preparedness and plan proactively if you can – it could save you many many hassles and frustrations in the long run!

Thursday Thoughts with… Rob Weiher

Hey all, here’s what’s shakin’ for this Thursday.  Another “Thursday Thoughts” edition is ready, but me and the guestk, Robert Weiher, took a little bit of a different tack on thi go around, primarily because of how I came across Robert, and what he’s doing for a current project.  See, Robert is a fellow NAPP member, and has started a 365 blog as a project for 2009.   After seeing a few of his comments appear here, my logs pointed me back to him (it always pays to watch your comment links as you never know where the next gem may come from). Robert’s space is definitely a gem, and I thought it might be fun to take the Thursday Thoughts on a different tack this week. So, without further ado, here’s the latest edition with Robert Weiher!!!

Q: Hi Robert, and thanks for taking the time to sit down with me to share your thoughts and insights here. First off, since we’re doing things a little differently, let’s start with your 365 project. Could you explain what a 365 blog is, and what was your motivation for starting this project?

A:  Hi Jason, thanks for having me. A 365 blog or project is basically just taking at least one photo a day and in my case posting and writing a little about it. My motivation to start one was to get me using my camera again. I was in a rut and had hardly used my camera in four months after coming home from a long vacation and finding very few good photos out of several hundred taken on the trip. I was finding myself spending more time in Photoshop trying to fix photos and was getting frustrated with the taking the photo part. To help get motivated I signed up for a weekend seminar on lighting and photographing artwork. The instructor happened to be a national portfolio reviewer and he did a short review of some of my work and gave me some great feedback and some tips to get going again. One was to sketch with my camera, which meant to just go out and take photos. He said to not worry about subject or lighting…just take a photo of anything of interest and then use these to refer back to for more creative ideas. This got me started down the road towards the project.

Q:  Do you look for particular themes or have specific ideas in mind for each day that you have mapped out, or do you approach each day from a “whatever comes my way” mentality?

A:  I originally started out thinking I was going to take around an old pair of my army boots and use them as a prop around the old Army base I live on. This lasted about three days when I realized if I wanted to continue on with the project I was going to need to be more flexible and that lead to a much more free form mentality.

Q:  And what kind of gear do you shoot with (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, etc.)?

A:  Canon 30D

Q:  What about post-processing gear (Mac, PC, Linux, etc.)?

A:  PC and when I post process Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Bridge.

Q:  And of course, the Chocolate/Vanilla/Strawberry question?

A:  As a kid I loved the chocolate/vanilla swirl cones but if I had to choose it would be chocolate.

Q:  Oooh, I’d forgotten about the swirl!  I loved that too.  Anyway, back to photography – how long have you been shooting?

A:  Since October 2007 after my wife, parents and sister chipped in to buy me my first digital camera for my 40th birthday.

Q:  So, about a year and a half now – well, you’ve got a great eye, and your knack for composition is really evident!    One shot in particular that I liked was done recently, on day 83 where you not only did your daily post, but also the setup with your homemade light box.  Are there any shots in particular from the project that stand out thus far for you?  (I know the bronze leaf was a popular one…)

A:  Day 66 or Red Tulips. Pretty much the first photo that made me pause and go     “wow” that turned out nicely.

Red Tulips - Day 66

I also like Day 73 or The Day I Retired My Baseball Glove. I was a huge baseball fan as a kid and played nearly year round. As an adult I played in different softball leagues over the years but hadn’t played for about 12 years before last year. My body took a beating so decided to retire the ball and glove and even though I didn’t mention that in my blog several comments were made about the emotion of the photo and that made me feel good that I was able to get that across in my photo.

Rob Weiher

Q:  Very nice.  Both are excellent and powerful images!  So, you’re about a quarter of the way through this project – any ideas for new projects that have come up you’re going to be pursuing?

A:  Right now my focus is to finish this project but start expanding into areas I haven’t touched on yet, like portrait. Part of the project was to also find out what style interests me so I want to explore all the styles I can. Not that I feel I need to limit myself to a specific style after my project is done but would like to figure out if there’s something that interests me the most. At the moment still life has caught most of my attention.

Q:  I’ve not seen a “for sale” sign on your blog…have you considered hanging out a shingle and actually putting some prints up for sale?  If someone wanted to purchase any prints from you, would you be open to that?

A:  Sure I’d be open to selling some of my prints. It’s been on the back of my mind and have explored opening a SmugMug account to host a portfolio of my best work. I hadn’t touched on it yet but all the photos on my blog are unedited, straight from the camera so I may need a little post work.

Q:  Any final thoughts on the project, photography in general, that you’d like to share?

A:  I think in the 3 months I’ve been doing this project I’ve come to realize one thing. No matter how many books and magazines I read, podcasts I listened too or websites I visited prior to January 1, 2009 I was not going to learn to be a better photographer until I put my hands on my camera and took as many photos I could a day. Not that having all those resources available is a bad thing…I just felt like I was approaching information overload. I decided to approach my project using Shoshin, or the Beginner’s Mind, which is having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject.

I put away the books and picked up the camera and made it my goal to make the best possible photograph in camera as I could. No post work so all my photos posted to my blog are straight from the camera and if I have issues with the photo I write about what I would do differently and highlight mistakes I made, such as forgetting to check my white balance setting or to make sure the horizon line is straight. Things that could easily be fixed in Photoshop but also just as easy to fix in camera. I also stepped outside my comfort zone and put myself out there for critique and feedback. This has helped immensely and I’ve made some great contacts via Flickr, Twitter and the blog. I still struggle with the putting myself out there more part but I think everyone wanting to become a better photographer should search out a community they feel comfortable in and ask for some feedback. The photography and Photoshop community are about the nicest and most helpful people you’ll ever find. I just hope to be able to be as helpful one day as everyone else has been for me.

Once again thank you Jason and thank you for being part of this great community.

The pleasure is all mine Robert.  Thank you so much for agreeing to take part in the “Thursday Thoughts” series, and I’ll be keeping an eye on the project as you go forward with the rest of it from here.  It’s been quite the enjoyable approach, and I’d like to wish you all the best going forward (us Canonite’s have to stick together! 🙂 )

Please take a moment to stop over to Robert’s 365 project at Unqualified to Blog as well as his Flickr Photostream and share your thoughts with his work over there.  Then, as Robert said, reading blogs and listening to podcasts isn’t going to do it all, so don’t forget to get out there and keep on practicing for real!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.